Game:

Crystal Caves (1991)

Category:

Review

Duration: 4:00

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I'm trying something a bit different with this series: This is my first playthrough of this level, followed by enough attempts to finish with perfect health at least once. It's not a flawless playthrough, but that's the point - you can practically see my brain grinding to a halt as I'm confronted with puzzle after puzzle. Hopefully it's of interest not just to the original author, but also anyone looking for insight into how another player goes about learning a new level.

Review: This level is AK70 - Tetris by Andrew Katz. The 70 in the title refers to the number of levels he's made - with 725 levels on the Steam workshop as I write this, Andrew's responsible for basically 10% of the custom levels available! The AK series seem to be universally good for casual play, I successfully ran Tetris with perfect health on the first attempt (although I didn't find all the fruit). The main challenge in this one seems to be a lot of slightly tricky, close-quarters jumps, none of which are particularly high-stakes.

There's no music set for this level, which is either a conscious choice or an accident - no biggie. I like that the level gradually opens up into larger and larger open spaces the higher you climb, there's (just) enough items to keep you interested and pointed in the right direction, and the treasure chest key isn't too difficult to get early on. I also like the gimmick with the disappearing bridge to the exit, although the choices of enemies there and elsewhere in the level can lead to some awkard pauses in flow.

The tetris theme gets a tiny bit lost when the terrain doesn't quite match the shapes you're expecting to see - it felt more like a classic close-in mine level than an exploration of tetrominoes. That said, I've played with a very similar level concept myself, and it's actually quite difficult to make a meaningful level's worth of terrain that's still reasonably playable in CCHD if you limit yourself to those strict shapes, so I get it. I would've liked to see a little more design and set pieces in the bottom half of the level - maybe the tetris pieces can be connected by piping, or have paths between them you need to blast open - but for such a quick level once you know your way around, it's not like you'll have long to admire it.

Conclusion: It's a fine, casual level as-is, and you could easily play a ton of AK's levels in one go to relax. I like it, and will be checking out more of Andrew's work in future.

Say hi on Twitter if you've made a level and would like to see it reviewed: https://twitter.com/timixretroplays

Come chat about Crystal Caves HD and Secret Agent HD on the Emberheart Games discord: https://discord.gg/pCdc9Wh5kv

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